Tip for LTE users: Save mobile data volume on the Mac with the Opera Turbo browser

I have recently become one of the rural LTE users who are blessed with a good speed of 50 Mbit / s, but unfortunately do not have a flat rate. This means that you get a fixed volume of data every month that you can use via the Internet line or via the wireless connection via LTE. If this data volume is used up, you are throttled and can only surf in slow motion.

I work on the net every day and have to send archives with photos back and forth every now and then. If you then listen to music on Apple Music while working and watch one or two films on Amazon Video, then even the 30 GB that you have included in the largest Telekom LTE package are quickly gone.

Opera Turbo: Save data volume while surfing

I've thought of various ways of reducing my own consumption of data volume. One option that is particularly helpful for people who spend a lot of time on "image-heavy" websites is to use the "Opera" web browser (click here for more information). Download for Mac). Basically it is a Browser like Safari, Firefox and Chrome too, but it offers an option called "Opera Turbo" which is very good for saving data while surfing.

To use "Opera Turbo", start the browser and then select "Opera Turbo" in the "Opera" menu. If a tick appears there, you are immediately on the move with the "Turbo" and save one or two megabytes of data that you would otherwise have used.

How Opera Turbo works

How the feature works is quickly explained: In contrast to a standard browser, which displays the graphics on websites directly as they are delivered by the server, in "Turbo mode" Opera only displays compressed graphics, that previously ran through Opera's servers.

That means, no matter how well the webmaster of the website in question has optimized his photos - the Opera servers get the most out of them in order to calculate them as small as possible (based on storage space). The trick is that only the opera-optimized image data are sent over the LTE radio network (or other connections).

This can save a lot of data, because many webmasters are not conscious of keeping their photos and graphics as small as possible. In times of DSL and high connection speeds, this is usually not necessary.

Exception: Opera forwards encrypted SSL connections directly

In order to respect the privacy of users and not to store "critical" data temporarily, encrypted connections are not "touched" by Opera Turbo. This means that if the Internet address is preceded by "https", then the data traffic does not go via the Opera server but only between the respective web server that is responsible for the website and the home Mac. Internet banking and many shop pages are not affected by Opera Turbo and are not compressed.

Unfortunately, many other websites are now also encrypted using SSL, for which Opera Turbo would make sense: Pinterest, Facebook and the like. However, because they use https, Opera Turbo does not intervene and does not save a byte of data. :-(

However, it works for many other websites that have not (yet) switched to SSL:

• web.de
• mirror.de
• phase.net
• taz.de

The addition "still" is deliberately included, because Google said some time ago that SSL encryption of websites is a ranking factor that causes the website to appear higher up in Google searches. So if you are actively working on the better placement of your website, you will sooner or later switch your website to "https" and thus unintentionally undermine Opera Turbo.

Opera Turbo settings: Can no longer be configured on the Mac

If you read a little more about Opera Turbo, you will often read the notice that you can configure the feature. This may have been the case once, but is currently no longer possible. If you go through the settings in the browser, you will not find an entry to configure Opera Turbo.

What MB of data can you save with Opera Turbo?

That's a good question that I can unfortunately only answer with one example. In Opera there is no display that says how many bytes of data would have been used normally and how much an Opera Turbo has saved.

However, I was able to determine it through an additional program. I have the tool on my Mac Tripmode active, which allows data traffic to be released only for certain apps. In addition, you can use the program to "measure" how many MB of data you have used in a session. I did a little test with it and called up the following websites – once with Firefox and once with Opera Turbo:

• sir-apfelot.de
• web.de
• taz.de
• phase.net
• mirror.de

While I used a total of 15,6 MB with Firefox, Opera Turbo presented me with the same pages without any visible loss of quality with only 5,4 MB of data consumption. That is a saving of 65% - a remarkable figure that I would not have expected myself.

Conclusion: Recommended for frugal frequent surfers

Despite all the limitations, Opera's Turbo feature was a discovery for me that I don't want to withhold from you. Although the data compression does not work for many portals where I would have thought it particularly useful (see Pinterest), there are still enough newspapers and news portals that can be "slimmed down" a bit by using the turbo feature. So I would definitely recommend the browser to people who surf the web a lot and access many different websites. This is where the greatest savings potential lies.

In any case, an additional recommendation is the combination with the above-mentioned Mac tool "Tripmode", which allows you to share the Internet connection only for certain programs.

I hope my recommendation will help one or the other who (like me) need to conserve their data contingent. :)

Jen Kleinholz( Founder & Sir Apfelot )

Jens has been running the blog since 2012. He appears as Sir Apfelot for his readers and helps them with problems of a technical nature. In his free time he drives electric unicycles, takes photos (preferably with his iPhone, of course), climbs around in the Hessian mountains or hikes with the family. His articles deal with Apple products, news from the world of drones or solutions for current bugs.